Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Report Bumper Second-quarter Profits

THE GUARDIAN: Investment banking arms of two Wall Street firms benefit from global glut of mergers and acquisitions

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have reported bumper profits for the second quarter as their investment banking divisions continued to ride the global boom in mergers and takeover deals.

The two US banks have been capitalising on the surge in merger and acquisitions activity, which broke records for the second straight quarter in the three months to June, according to Refinitiv data, and helped make up for a slowdown in trading since the start of the year.

Goldman Sachs, which continues to generate the highest investment banking fees among its peers, reported profits of $5.5bn (£4bn) in the second quarter. That was the second highest profit on record for the bank, only surpassed by its first quarter of 2021, and compared with just $373m in profits a year earlier when the group had to draw down provisions to cover a $2.9bn settlement over the 1MDB corruption scandal with global regulators. » | Kalyeena Makortoff, Banking correspondent |Tuesday, July 13, 2021